Board of Directors

Nancy J. Newman, Founder and President

Nancy J. Newman is a partner at Hanson Bridgett LLP in San Francisco, where she specializes in real estate and commercial litigation. A lifelong advocate for justice, Nancy worked full-time for the United Farm Workers Union while still in high school. At age 17, she successfully organized the workers of Pizzaland Restaurant, in Dublin, Ireland, to obtain better wages and union representation – an event recounted ina song by Malvina Reynolds. She received her JD, Order of the Coif, from UC Davis School of Law at age 23. As an attorney, she worked with other women lawyers to promote gender equity through Queen’s Bench. As president of Queen’s Bench in 1996, she expanded its influence on legislative and policy initiatives, and collaborated with other bar, professional, and women’s organizations to strengthen the movement for equality in law and society. In 1997, Nancy joined the board of the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations, becoming its president for 2001-2002, and promoting its engagement with women lawyers around the world – an initiative started by board member Mary Wolverton. Since leading the NCWBA, Nancy has been speaking and networking on gender equity issues in the Unites States and abroad, including as Special Envoy for California Women Lawyers to an international conference on women’s rights in Nigeria, at the invitation of advisory board member Stella Odife. The Boalt Hall Women’s Association at UC Berkeley Law awarded Nancy with the 2015 “Women Advancing the Law” practitioner award.Nancy was featured in California Women Lawyers December 2015 newsletter’s “Who is CWL?” article, and is a contributing blogger to Ms. JD.

Rebecca Hooley, Vice-President

Rebecca Hooley, is a graduate of Columbia Law School and is a deputy County Counsel for Contra Costa County. A dedicated advocate for women’s rights, she has been involved with Queen’s Bench for 10 years and was its president in 2012. Prior to her legal career, she lived in Central America and worked for a Guatemalan human rights organization. She joined the board of IANGEL to expand her work for gender equity to the national and international arena.

Andrea Carlise, Treasurer

Andrea Carlise is an employment litigation attorney in Alameda, California. She served as an Assistant County Counsel for the County of Alameda from November 2016 to September 2018, leading its Advocacy Division and serving as General Counsel to the County’s Human Resource Services Department, its Risk Management Unit and its Diversity Programs Office. She was a partner with Patton Wolan Carlise, LLP from 2007 to 2016, serving as managing partner from 2014 -2016. She worked with predecessor firm Patton Wolan Boxer from 1995 through 2006. She is currently taking a sabbatical from active law practice, and volunteering for causes that support her passion for gender equity and human rights.

She is a passionate advocate for gender equity, diversity and inclusion. She is a past president of both the National Conference of Women’s Bar Associations and California Women Lawyers. She served on the No Glass Ceiling Monitoring Task Force of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and as the NCWBA’s Liaison to the ABA’s Commission on Women in the Profession, where she co-chaired the Commission’s sexual harassment committee.

Mary Wolverton, Secretary

Mary Wolverton is an accomplished trial lawyer and partner of the law firm of Peterson, Johnson, & Murray, S.C., in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she handles medical malpractice litigation. A staunch advocate for women and justice, Mary was a founding mother of Wisconsin’s Association for Women Lawyers, and is a past president Civil Trial Counsel of Wisconsin. She led the NCWBA as president from 2000-2001, during which time she expanded the NCWBA’s networking and connection to other women’s bar associations around the world.

Jolynn Shoemaker, Director

Jolynn Shoemaker is an expert on women’s participation and gender mainstreaming in international peace and security. She has been on the forefront of a growing women, peace, and security movement to ensure that women have an equal voice in policy decisions and institutions that impact rights and opportunities in their countries. She has advocated to increase women’s participation in all stages of peace processes and promoted gender sensitivity in such areas as rule of law. She has served in leadership positions and as a consultant to many organizations dedicated to these topics, including as the former executive director of Women in International Security (WIIS). She also has held policy and legal positions in the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense, focusing on human rights and post-conflict security issues. She holds a J.D. and M.A. from Georgetown University. Recent articles by Jolynn Shoemaker includes Does Americas National Security Need a Feminist Movement(February 2016).

Tzili Mor, Director

Tzili Mor JD, MS, LLM is an international legal expert focused on human rights, gender justice, legal empowerment, and social change strategies. She recently directed the Landesa Center for Women’s Land Rights, co-led Georgetown Law’s International Women’s Human Rights Clinic, spearheaded human rights initiatives for the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative and the International Development Law Organization, and coordinated Amnesty International’s human rights defenders program. She advised and collaborated with governments, multilateral institutions, and civil society globally on gender-responsive socially-equitable legal reforms and policy-making, and creative advocacy for equal access to rights, resources, and redress. She led global and country portfolios and teams on four continents. She taught, mentored, trained, researched, and wrote on foundational legal and policy issues and substantive legal topics, including land, housing, inheritance, and property rights, natural resources and environmental justice, economic empowerment, gender-based violence (GBV), reproductive and sexual rights, HIV/AIDS, health rights, access to justice and traditional dispute resolution processes. Her experience spans over 23 countries, multiple legal regimes, and plural legal systems, including countries in conflict and transition. Profiled by Global Washington as a Changemakerand featured by UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women, Law and Human Rights for the Spotlight on Faculty Research.

Danielle Nicholson, Director

Danielle Nicholson is an attorney in the New York office of Jenner & Block LLP practicing in the Complex Commercial Litigation and International Arbitration groups. She also maintains a robust pro bono practice representing asylum seekers, torture survivors and victims of human trafficking. As a passionate advocate of gender and immigrant rights, she has worked with vulnerable women and migrant populations in Southern Africa and Central Europe. She holds a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from Temple University in Philadelphia, PA and is a member of the New York State Bar.

Shruti Rana, Director

Shruti Rana is a professor at the School of Global and International Studies, Indiana University Bloomington, where she focuses on international law and human rights. She has been involved in international women’s rights advocacy and legal reform efforts for more than two decades. She has researched and written a number of articles, reports and policy and advocacy pieces on international women’s rights issues, and also served as a Social Affairs Officer at the United Nations, Division for the Advancement of Women, where she worked on implementation and monitoring of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. Before coming to IU, Professor Rana taught at the University of Maryland Law School, where she helped develop the school’s International and Comparative Law Clinic, and was also a Visiting Associate Professor at UC Berkeley Law School. She also has significant practice experience in areas of international, corporate, and administrative law, most recently serving as Of Counsel at Brooks Pierce LLP, and has also practiced at Williams & Connolly LLP in Washington, DC, and at Quinn Emanuel LLP in San Francisco, CA. She also clerked for the Hon. James R. Browning at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.